We’re now looking for the community to shake out any hidden errors by downloading the draft and reviewing one or more chapters by following the handy 5 step process.

Is there any way to feed back wrong stuff without reviewing a whole chapter? I don’t have time for the latter at present, but spotted something the other day which looks factually wrong (or at least misleading).

Same as the above, though filetype is offset +20. Watch out for files that have no type, but instead the load/exec addresses. The *SAVE command makes files like these..

because I do not know in which forum I should post this message !

Traffic is low enough here that I don’t think we need extra forums by language. That said, I’m not entirely sure there is much technical difference between “General” and “Community support”. Logically your message probably should have gone into Community support as you’re asking for help, but then what’s General for?

It’s cold, it’s Saturday, there are more important things to worry about… ;-)

I was suprised to see a copy of some version this draft UG elsewhere on the net. Is this legit?

Thanks for picking that up, we’ve advised Scribd about the terms of use on page 1 (you can use the contact details on the feedback page at the back of the manual for such matters, rather than posting links on our forum, which then get picked up by search engines) especially as there’s a much better later draft available than the copy they’d harvested.

To date, nobody has asked about distributing the User Guide PDF. If you found a copy on a computer you bought, on a magazine cover disc, car boot sale, or website, it’s not legit.

I have wanted for some time to make a little 6502 device (CPU, 6522, ACIA…) just for the sake of doing so, when all I really need to do is grab a bit of veroboard1, one of these chips, and it’s all there…

Are these things available to normal nobodies? How are they programmed?

1Yes, I am aware that there’s a 99% chance of these being surface mount.

The GPC3680A is embedded with an 8-bit processor, 2M bytes Working ROM, 128-byte working SRAM, three sets of 12-bit timer/counters, twenty-four general I/Os, a 3-channel mixer, a pair of 12-bit PWM outputs and a Real Time Clock(RTC). The microprocessor can implement software based on audio processing, functional control and others. For audio processing, melody and speech can be mixed into one output. It operates over a wide voltage range from 2.0V through 5.5V, and it includes Low Voltage Reset to assure system operating appropriately under low voltage condition. In addition, GPC3680A also provides sleep mode for power saving. With the high cost/performance, GPC3680A is one of the most suitable engines in the industry for vocal products.

Or something more specialised:

The GPRT5507A integrates an 8-bit CPU, speech generator, segment LED driver, analog switches, programmable attenuator and a gain amplifier into one chip. The GPRT5507A includes a 40K-byte ROM, 128-byte working SRAM, 4 edge-mode interrupts and a fixed time based generator (FCPU/1024)*. This chip which incorporated with 1 or 2 pieces of 4M X 4 ARAM, can be applied to the versatile audio field, such as a language repeater.

I had a lot of fun creating a time-stretching wavetable synthesiser for a toy company on an 8MHz 6502 with only A and Y registers.

Well, not right now, no. It would probably work in Lynx (here) though!

I’m getting close to a release of the “UTF-8 outside the desktop” stuff (which actually means UTF-8 everywhere), but I’m aware that it will mean that the long-overdue PostScript support will become even more urgent… and that’s probably going to have to be my problem, under the circumstances. :-/

In days gone by we learned by buying Acorn user and typing in projects and so on to do different things from a game to a small utility or program. Over time obviously gaining and increasing knowledge of the computer and language.

But what do we do now???? It’s maybe nice to attract new people to try Risc OS with Raspberry PI or emulators but i am willing to bet most are doing it for a wee look or a bit of retro blast from days gone by and aren’t programmers.

What does this mean. We’ll probably less and less developers every year creating or maintaining software. And of course with no software there won’t be new users.

Part of Rpi charm is the diy ability to make things say from some led light show to home automation to…. Sky is the limit.

Tbh risc os with it’s fonts and ability to work well on lower res smaller screens would be great for a lot of these diy projects. It would be great to see some info on using and accessing the diy type hardware and almost a series of articles where you can make or buy and add on and actually program to run it and a wimp interface to control it.

Be nice to see similar resources/articles even if scanned from old magazines etc that new users can work their way through and start to build a knowledge of programming on risc os.

Is there anythjng like that avail? I’d love to try a diy thermostat with Rpi a small screen and relay etc to control the heating. First program a basic interface to control it.. Then maybe add more features in each article/stage. Maybe incorporating ability to control from web. Then maybe add ability to grab some weather info like temp, wind speed, wind chill and build it into how heating is controlled. Lastly maybe program a learning feature that compares thermostat/house temp with the weather info its been storing and allow it to learn what to adjust when.

Ok thermostat idea was just off top of head as an interesting and useful project that can start with basic interface and work up to more complicated and be a worth while project. You could even take it further to add temp sensors in other parts of house and even with a motorized valve even zone the house. Add lights and other bits to even build into smart home controller. I think potential and diy interest in this area would be good and if done over time a great project to follow and learn for lots of us.

Could get some more articles on computer/tech/rpi sites as well.

However even just access to some old magazine programming articles that built week by week i reckon would be invaluable. I know i can learn as taught myself sas/sql and spotted so many mistakes in code others had written i know i could get up to speed but tbh kinda need an interesting series of projects that builds me up to keep interest going :)

Any ideas of what we could do and/or anything out there already that fills my needs?

There was actually a mandlebrot software released with hydra (no idea if source code was released but think it was supposed to be). And full documentation of api and its use. Wonder if we could actually create the same api but for the extra cores in modern chips. Ok it will be more work as imagine some of hardware logic on hydra board may need to be taken care of in api itself .

I still think as an 2nd part its sensible to look at small apps that could do with ability to run in background a music player was my example as its one of few that have a tangible benefit from being able to get on and do its think while your doing other stuff. It’s a good start that could maybe lead to say parts of OS itself being run by one core and apps on another.

you can simply put the TimPlayer module on the game’s folder, and then RMLoad it on the !Run script, no need to put anything into !System to get music

Since TimPlayer is distributed as a !System update which the OS can merge into !System for you, that’s preferable over distributing a potentially out of date copy (as was the case previously) inside the application. You can of course load TimPlayer any way you want prior to running the game, but if the game can’t find TimPlayer the only place it tries to load it from is !System.

The default graphics mode “high resolution” is NOT appropiate for the Pi. Ir causes the game screen to be too thin and tall. Could you please make “low resolution” the default?

In choices choose “low resolution” before starting the game. High resolution is 320×480 which is intended to end up like 640×480 (ie. horizontal scan half the speed so pixels end up 4:3), so if it’s come out tall and thin your monitor or MDF must be unhappy.

Just tried it – doesn’t seem to work on VRPC – is it compatible with the Risc PC?

Yes (see the !Help). Tested on a real Risc PC with 5.22 and 4.02, and RPCEmu with 3.70. Do you have a vaguely up to date C library loaded?

I have had to do a double take with paypal a few times on linux lately.
Can you simply login to your Paypal account on it’s own?
When I wget that Paypal login the source shows no-javascript, but it knows what country I have retrieved from, so who knows what they might change to suit your browser.
If you look at the source from the rool page that has the paypal button, you can see the email address and descriptions of the bounty.
Including that information manually at your (logged in) paypal should get your money to the desired place.
You can send money to another Paypal registered person via their email address.
I imagine that information would go with you via a cookie when going to Paypal when all is working.
If not, how else?

Bear in mind that the PRMs were written back when the OS was closed. Since opening it up, has someone actually said “no, we won’t document them”?

There’s also the not so minor point that, as yet incomplete, PRM info is there in wiki form so if anyone has figured out any element that isn’t documented it’s a mouse click and typing exercise to change the situation.

There is of course the question about whether anything with no public documentation has any “secret” documentation which could be opened.

When the entire code is available and can be read, refusing to document certain calls as they are “something internal” is little more than purile childishness, a mentality from when RISC OS was closed.

Has there actually been a “refusal” to document the SWIs or have they simply not been documented? Bear in mind that the PRMs were written back when the OS was closed. Since opening it up, has someone actually said “no, we won’t document them”?

When the entire code is available and can be read, refusing to document certain calls as they are “something internal” is little more than purile childishness, a mentality from when RISC OS was closed. It is also the height of inconsistency, for Dave said:

on its use by user programmes

This being a set of documents running to thousands of pages that tell you how to write FIQ code, filing systems, and hijack all manner of events and ServiceCalls to be capable of changing the behaviour of the OS. It’s fine to do all of these things, but certain SWIs are sacrosanct – things which should not be spoken of? Is it too hard to document the calls along with a note on their nature? That makes no sense normally, and negative sense when we’re talking about a system that is in need of attracting developers.

And then shut the ends of the tunnel? Seems a bit of a waste – maybe a redundant aircraft carrier would be better? We could even scuttle it, if we’re careful to put it in deep enough water not to cause a hazard to shipping.